Sunday, December 20, 2009

Blog closed for "winter weather"

This weekend snow storm has reminded me it's time to close the blog due to "unsuitable weather conditions". Well not completely closed, I'll still post something entertaining for my (2-3?) readers (especially those interested in winter sports). If you really want to read about winter windsurfing (and debate on the meaning of the word "crazy") you can always check Mighty Mike's blog.

Yesterday night some parts of the island got 25" of fresh powder. Completely wasted. Why LI is so damn flat???!!!

Monday, December 7, 2009

A short december session

So, yeah, I haven't windsurfed at all in the past two months. The first month and a half because of my foot injury and the rest because of too much other stuff going on, specifically a lot of work to do. With the winter around the corner the chances to squeeze in a session were thinning every day. So last week, when the forecast called for strong SW winds and warm temps on Thursday, I decided that was my day.

As usual NOAA forecasted too much wind. By noon the wind had shifted from SW to WSW and dropped to about 20mph. In the morning I had grabbed my 90L board and the 6.3, 5.5 and 5.0 sails and that wasn't good news. I went to the usual place, Shirley beach on the South Bay. Not only the wind was dropping, the direction wasn't optimal either, too onshore. But at the end it didn't matter, I just wanted to get out there.

As the Peconic Puffin pointed out recently, this time of the year the water in the bay is definitely colder than the ocean. I could tell because I didn't wear gloves and my hands were freezing after I fell in the water a couple of times! The 4/3 mm wetsuit seemed to do the job though.
I tried the very popular boom-tail-mount with the gopro and it worked just great. Much better than my jibes. Boys I'm rusty! I edited a video and tried many times to upload it on youtube and directly on the blog website without success. Since I have no time for dealing with such s*** right now here are a few pics from the movie.